Evaluation of a tympanic membrane thermometer in an outpatient clinical setting.

Temperature measurement is one of the most commonly performed medical procedures. A study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between temperature measurements obtained by glass-mercury and infrared tympanic membrane thermometers. One hundred two patients completed the study, and the mean difference between the two methods of temperature measurement was -0.311 +/- 0.691 C (95% confidence interval, +1.071 to -1.693 C). The relationship between the two devices as calculated by linear regression analysis is tympanic membrane temperature = 0.74 x oral/rectal temperature + 10.2 (r = .763). In view of the poor correlation found in our study, we cannot recommend automatic substitution of the glass-mercury thermometer with an infrared tympanic membrane device.